It takes some imagination to find a filling breakfast food that can be made in advance; often on weekends at our house we have people waking up over the course of several hours. I’m not the cheeriest of early morning cooks, so I prefer to put breakfast together and let guests serve themselves when they wake up, which eliminates me hovering in the kitchen, spatula in hand, waiting to take orders. If you have juice waiting in a pretty pitcher in the fridge, a ready pot of coffee, and some yogurt and granola on hand, the addition of this cherry quinoa muffin will provide a hearty breakfast.
A quinoa muffin is a pretty substantial food item, even though they’re slightly more petite than most muffins. They don’t rise as much, but since they’re packed with quinoa they will keep you full for hours.
I’ve encountered too many dry-as-dust quinoa muffins, and these still taste like a delicious muffin treat: the fresh cherries are juicy and sweet, the brown sugar sprinkled on top adds just enough crunch, and with a little butter on them, they’re meltingly moist and delicious. (Dried cherries will yield a less moist muffin in this recipe.) These muffins also make a great mid-afternoon snack with a cup of tea.
Quinoa and Fresh Cherry Muffins
Makes: 8 muffins
Prep Time: 50 minutes (including 25 minutes baking)
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh cherries, pitted and chopped
- 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
- 1 quarter cup canola oil
- 2 cups flour
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar, plus brown sugar for sprinkling on top of muffins
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup whole milk, plus 1/3 cup cream
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a saucepan with a lid, bring quinoa and 1 cup of water to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cover, and cook until water is absorbed – about 12 minutes.
- Brush the inside of a muffin pan with oil.
- Whisk together sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 cups cooked quinoa.
- In a separate bowl, mix together oil, milk, cream, egg, and vanilla.
- Add milk to flour mixture. Stir until combined, then stir in cherries.
- Divide batter into muffin tin, filling each cup ¾ of the way full. Sprinkle tops with additional brown sugar.
- Bake 25 minutes. Allow muffins to cool slightly, and serve.
